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BRAD FAXON Keen visitor |
AJGA has matured into first-rate organization
MATTAPOISETT - In many ways this week's local golf stage offers a story with complementary aspects: The Fidelity Investments Junior Classic being played at the Bay Club at Mattapoisett.
On one hand you have the American Junior Golf Association, an organization that has evolved through its 30 years into a masterful business plan built around helping young golfers grow with the game. On the other, you have a golf course that is coming of age, much like the golfers who are testing themselves against national competition.
From where he sits, Brad Faxon sees the common thread, because he'd love to see his first entry into course design mature like the AJGA, an organization that he regrets wasn't around in the early 1970s when he was falling in love with golf.
"I realize now more clearly that as a designer, you really are never done with a golf course," said Faxon, whose first collaboration with veteran course architect Brad Booth was the Bay Club.
Faxon realized it was far more stressful than he envisioned, but because the Bay Club story has shifted gears, he is more excited than ever.
"We've got a plan in place to keep making the golf course better and that's exciting," said Faxon. "It's taking on a more traditional New England look, we've incorporated native grasses, and I think it's taking on more character."
The change of landscape at the Bay Club is one that has made a world of difference to Booth and Faxon. Launched by a partnership of four men, the course now is owned by the members. With a new philosophy in place, the architects have continued to add touches - from vibrant fescue, to stone walls, to bunkering, to additional tees - that have given the Bay Club a higher profile.
Hosting an AJGA event is the latest example and Faxon has been a keen visitor to this Fidelity Investments Junior Classic. It's the sort of competitive setting he didn't have in his teenage years, though certainly others in his line of work had that advantage. The AJGA roll call since it organized its first tournament in 1978 sounds like a "Who's Who" of the best touring professionals in the game. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Ryan Moore, Vicki Goetze, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Stacy Lewis . . . the list is hundreds deep.
Yet it is someone such as Joy Kim, 17, who personifies the AJGA mission statement: "To help players earn college golf scholarships."
A senior-to-be at Albany High in Pinole, some 20 miles outside of San Francisco, Kim has a passion for the game, yet has a firmer grip on perspective.
"The AJGA and golf," she said, "are helping to get me into school. I'm focused on school, not professional golf."
To this point, consider some of the numbers that support the AJGA's agenda:
Some 450 AJGA players annually accept golf scholarships.
The annual scholarship money for these AJGA players is a whopping $26.5 million.
In its debut season the AJGA ran two tournaments, in 2008 it will run more than 80.
There were 1,484 members in 1984; now there are 5,020.
From two employees in 1978 and five in 1984, the AJGA now has a staff of 56, but that number swells to more than 90 when summer interns come aboard.
"Overall, it's the best junior golf," said Max Campion of Brookline, whose first-round 69 Tuesday led the field of 97 youngsters (12-18) in the Fidelity Investments Junior Classic. "Everyone wants to get into their tournaments. You get great competition and they're run very well."
Campion, who will be a senior at Beaver Country Day, speaks from experience, having played in a variety of junior tournaments since he was 11. But it's the AJGA scene that opens collegiate doors, which is why Kim is here.
"I'm making some campus visits," she said. But since it's a long flight home, Kim added AJGA tournaments in Indiana, North Carolina, Chicago, Connecticut, and the Bay Club. The birdies and bogeys are part of her summer, yes, but the bottom line is: "I'm hoping to go to an Ivy League school."
To combat the perception that golf is an elite sport beyond the means of most youngsters, an AJGA extension program called Achieving Competitive Excellence was begun in 2003. To date, 255
"I used to play local golf tournaments and everyone would say to me, 'You need to play AJGA events,' " said Kim. "They said they would help me and expose me to the best juniors in this country and help with college. They were right."
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
